


Third Step: Outside

by sofi150398



Series: Ian's plan [3]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Domestic Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Fluff, Ian Gallagher Loves Mickey Milkovich, M/M, Married Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:34:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29769381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sofi150398/pseuds/sofi150398
Summary: Everything was going according to Ian's plan, Mickey didn't feel threatened anymore when his husband woke him up. Well, at least Ian thought so until a minor incident shows him that they still have a long way to go.The third step is showing Mickey that he can feel safe waking up in places outside their bedroom. Maybe a nice hotel or the open field after falling asleep watching the stars could do the trick.Also Mickey's not dumb, he discorvers Ian's plan and they finally get to talk about their old demons.
Relationships: Ian Gallagher/Mickey Milkovich
Series: Ian's plan [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2172906
Kudos: 58





	Third Step: Outside

The plan was going pretty well. For the last three months, Ian had been alternating between waking Mickey up for sex or with a cup of coffee. He had been rewiring Mickey’s brain, teaching it to associate being waken up with pleasurable things. Ian knew this kind of change wasn’t easy nor a fast journey, after all Mickey had to overcome years of trauma and pain, but Ian was up for the challenge and he sure as hell was a stubborn man.

So far there had been a considerable improvement, now Ian could easily approach him while sleeping, even from behind and could even go as far as to touch him without Micky volting right away. It was kind of fascinating to watch the progress and to analyze the best ways to make him feel at peace.

However, although overall mostly everything was going according to the plan, one unfortunate event showed Ian that they weren’t as advanced as he had initially thought.

_It was a Sunday evening, Mickey had been watching some shitty show on Netflix and after a few episodes, he had fallen fast asleep on the family couch. Ian didn’t blame him, they both were exhausted after a week full of weed and cash deliveries, they couldn’t bitch about it though, the money was really good, and they got to spend lots of time together._

_After an hour or so of letting Mickey sleep snuggled to his side, the muscles of Ian’s back started to crump, and his stomach growled of hunger. He carefully freed himself of Mickey’s grip and gently pushed him, so he was laying down._

_He headed to the kitchen to fix something quick for both of them to eat , knowing Mickey would wake up hungry. Distractedly he cooked some pasta and poured two glasses of soda, then he went back to tell his husband the food was waiting for them._

_Approaching Mickey, he crouched in front of him and he put his hand on his knee. “Hey, dinner is ready” He whispered as he shook his leg slightly. What Ian didn’t expect was for Mickey to violently jerk awake and without any warning, deck him on the cheek, the punch not strong enough to knock him out but definitely strong enough to hurt like a motherfucker and make him loose his balance, falling butt down._

_“What the fuck, Mickey?!” He yelled as he held his face, while he knew it wasn’t actually Mickey’s fault, the anger was still hard to control. Mickey seemed to wake up fully at the commotion, looking confused and a little disoriented. Staring down at Ian, realization appeared on his face._

_“Jesus Christ, Ian…” Mickey stood up from the couch and crouched down next to his husband._

_“Really, Mick? Fucking punched me?!” He shouted while touching the forming bruise. Ian stared annoyingly at his husband._

_“Stop yelling for fuck’s sake, I didn’t want to punch you, you just startled the hell out of me, man” Mickey sounded kind of sorry, well, at least Ian heard it and it made the anger start to disappear. “Shit, I got ya good” Mickey said taking Ian face between his hands and examining the damage. Ian rolled his eyes._

_“Don’t need to sound so smug about it” The redhead challenged, Mickey just grinned. Without a word, he got up and headed to the kitchen, retrieving a cold pack. Ian just sat on the couch and watch him go._

_Then he went back to the living room, and as gently as he could, he pressed the ice to Ian’s face. They sat there in silence for a while, Mickey still holding the ice hoping for the swelling to recede. He looked so fucking guilty._

_After a few minutes of silence, Mickey took Ian’s hand and placed it on the pack, cueing him to grab it. He stared at him for a second, softly caressing the side of Ian’s face which wasn’t hurt with his thumb. Suddenly dropping to his knees, Mickey positioned himself between Ian’s legs with a smirk on his lips._

_“I can think of a way of making it up to you” He said as he started unbuckling Ian’s belt. This was familiar ground for them, it was easier to just get into flirty mode. They both knew this was something they needed to talk about, not because Mickey had just hit him, but because everything that was behind that punch. However, Ian also knew that there were times for long talks and there were times when they just needed… this._

_Whatever residual irritation Ian felt, was promptly replaced by the unbearable need of feeling Mickey’s mouth on him… right the fuck now._

_“Maybe I should make you punch me more often” Mickey licked his lips, while palming Ian’s hardening erection through his boxers. Ian’s breath was quickening with anticipation; he put his hand on Mickey’s head, slightly tugging his hair._

_“Yeah, maybe you should” He said before lowering his head and taking Ian into his mouth._

__  
__  


Later that night once they were both sweaty and sated and Mickey was already nodding off next to him on their bed, Ian had time to reflex on what had gone wrong when he had tried to wake Mickey earlier. The plan had worked perfectly until that evening, well, maybe not perfectly, but at least Mickey didn’t have much of a problem letting Ian wake him up anymore. Of course, he knew there was still a long way to go, to be fair he hadn’t allowed anyone else to approach Mickey while he was sleeping, so he was pretty sure his husband would break whoever’s hand that tried it aside from him. But then again, earlier that day it had been Ian who did it and he still had gotten punched.

He may had been overthinking it, maybe Mickey was just too tired and that’s why he reacted that way. Or maybe he was right and there was something else he was missing.

He thought back to all the times he had woken Mickey up the last couple of months and in retrospective he realized every time he had done it in their shared room. That day was the first time ever he had woken Mickey up in any place other than their bed. That was a line of inquiry worth exploring. Maybe it wasn’t just Ian that made him feel safe it was Ian _and_ being in their bedroom. If that was the case, Ian didn’t like it. 

It’s not that he didn’t like that Mickey felt safe on their shared space, on the contrary the thought made a warm feeling spread through his chest. It was just the circumstances in which Mickey felt secure where _very_ restricted, the requirements being copulative: both Ian and the place, and that wasn’t good. Some possessive part of him kind of appreciated it, made him feel special, but he wasn’t so selfish as to not being able to understand that it wasn’t an ideal situation. So… phase three would be a little different than he had initially planned.

For the third step of the plan, Ian would try to make Mickey feel safe waking up on spaces that weren’t just their room, which could be somewhat tricky considering that’s where they passed most of their time, if not all. But he could be creative. And hey, maybe this wouldn’t be healthy just for Mickey, but maybe they could both make some good memories out of it.

Ian started small, overwhelming Mickey wasn’t really the goal, so the first step would wake him up in spaces that weren’t they bedroom, but familiar nonetheless. Like their couch. They began hanging out more in the living room, Ian casually suggesting they went downstairs and watch a movie or have dinner there or even maybe get a little more adventurous and spice up their sex life getting naughty right where anyone could walk in on them. Which meant Mickey falling asleep there wasn’t a rare occurrence anymore and well, Ian had the opportunity to wake him up gently.

Sometimes he would make sure that Mickey woke up wrapped in his arms laying on top of his chest, and he would caress his back up and down and whisper his name in his ear until Mickey opened his eyes.

Other times, he would put on some soft music, a song he knew Mickey liked and sat beside him, making a little noise in the process or talking with one of his siblings, enough to wake him up, but not startle him. While his husband would be in the process of regaining consciousness Ian would sit beside him, not touching him, but not letting him wake up alone either.

After a couple of weeks of this routine, Mickey didn’t jump anymore or much less punched Ian when waking up on other rooms of the house. That’s when he decided it was time to go a step further, now they needed a place that was familiar but outside of their comfort zone.

Ian understood that whatever he came up with, would be just a start and maybe wouldn’t mean anything else than some nice experiences in the long run. He wasn’t a wizard nor he could pretend mental health problems could be so easily solved, he himself could testify to that. However, he could create a safe space for Mickey, he could help him in the process and more than anything he wanted to show Mickey that he could feel shielded by him.

It was time to get inventive. What places could they spend the night in that would give them a comfortable setup? After several days of thinking Ian came up with a few ideas.

They were driving to their next delivery destination, it was somewhere far but the client had bought a considerable amount of weed, so they kept their mouth shut about it. They had been driving for about twenty minutes when Ian broke the companiable silence.

“Hey, Mick, you know how our anniversary is coming next week?” He asked casually. Mickey looked up from his phone, seemingly uninterested.

“Really? I had no idea” Shrugging, he returned his attention to the phone, pretending it was the most interesting thing ever. Ian swallowed hard, clearly the topic didn’t bear the same importance to both of them. Mickey then raised his head smirking, the kind of smile that said he was messing with his husband. “I plan the whole wedding thing, dickhead. Of course I know the damn day”. A shiver run through Ian as he recalled Bridezilla Mickey, but soon forgot about it as he watched his husband’s shit-eating grin.

“Asshole” Ian called him adoringly. “Anyway, as I was saying… I’ve been thinking. Maybe we could rent a room somewhere, go away for the weekend. A hotel or a cottage, just the two of us”. To anyone else that type of proposition didn’t mean much, but they weren’t your everyday couple and as a matter of fact, they hadn’t done anything like that before. Well, at least he didn’t think that sharing a prison cell together counted as a romantic getaway. Mickey raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Thought we were saving up all the cash, you know, for our new place” Which was true, they had reached an agreement and since they both wanted to live on their own, saving most of their profits was the logical thing to do.

“Yeah, sure, but we won’t bleed out for a couple of nights out of town” He said biting his lip nervously. Ian knew that the offer was a little out of character coming from him, between the two of them, he usually was the down to earth one, but he hoped Mickey would agree.

“I don’t know, man, with everything going on, maybe we should just do something here” Mickey had a point, with the Milkoviches moving next to them and the whole selling the house deal, things had gotten complicated. However, Ian had concluded that if they stopped living their life every time something happened around them, they would never be able to move forward.

“We wouldn’t go anywhere too far, we can’t anyway. Parole, remember? But I think it would be good for us to have some time alone somewhere nice, you know?” Ian pushed turning on his puppy dog eyes. Mickey still looked unconvinced. “Look, if you don’t want to, we don’t have to go, but maybe…” Trying not to sound too disappointed, he focused on the road ahead of them. Mickey rolled his eyes and smiled.

“Just admit you wanna have my ass all to yourself, firecrotch. You’re ain’t fooling nobody” He said teasingly. Ian felt a weight lifting from his chest, maybe this wasn’t a lost battle after all. Not missing a beat to tease him back, Ian spoke again.

“And what if I do, _though guy_? You scared of what I’ll do with that pretty little ass of yours?” Mickey flipped him off, he hated being called little and Ian knew it.

“You wished, bitch. You’re the one who should be scared, all alone in the woods with a big bad Milkovich.” Mickey’s smile was blinding and his eyes had the same shine they had had on their wedding day. Fuck, Ian was so gone for him.

“Nobody said anything about going to the woods. _And_ I assure you there aren’t gonna be any Milkoviches around, Mr. Gallagher” Smiling back, he took Mickey’s hand on his own. Maybe he was a soft motherfucker.

“You sure about that, Mr. Milkovich?” Mickey flirted back. They stayed silent for a couple of seconds.

“So what do you say? Are we going?” He pushed one last time, almost certain of the answer.

“Ah, fuck it, Let’s do it”.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!


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